Gyeonggi Province to Support 284,000 Low-Income Households with Rental Housing and Housing Costs This Year

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province plans to supply a total of 43,000 public rental housing units this year to ensure housing stability for low-income households, and will provide housing allowances to 241,200 low-income households.

Additionally, the province will promote the 'Gyeonggi Basic Housing' policy, which allows any homeless person to pay reasonable rent and stably reside for more than 30 years in key areas such as near subway stations, and will also implement support projects to address the problem of vacant houses that have become eyesores and accelerate urban decay.

The province announced on the 2nd that it has confirmed the '2021 Gyeonggi Province Comprehensive Housing Plan' containing these measures.

The Gyeonggi Province Comprehensive Housing Plan includes the supply of public rental housing and support measures for housing-vulnerable groups that the province will promote or proceed with this year, and is established annually in accordance with the Housing Basic Act.

In this housing comprehensive plan, the province selected five key projects: ▲Demand-tailored rental housing supply ▲Supply of universal housing service 'basic housing' for homeless persons ▲Strengthening demand-based inclusive housing support ▲Creating transparent and efficient multi-family housing management culture and preventing construction defects through housing quality inspections and technical consultations, improving residential environments and strengthening safety management of small-scale multi-family housing ▲Promotion of urban regeneration projects and vacant house improvement projects reflecting regional conditions.

First, in the area of demand-tailored rental housing supply, the province plans to supply 43,000 rental housing units this year, including 30,000 publicly constructed rental units and 13,000 purchased and charter rental units.

Target residents include recipients of basic livelihood security and medical assistance, youth, newlyweds, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, single-parent families, children in housing poverty, and children leaving care facilities, with plans to supply demand-focused rental housing.

Additionally, 'Gyeonggi Happy Housing,' a rental housing supplied to ensure housing stability for youth and overcome low birth rates, had 7,807 units approved for project planning as of last year.

This year, 2,156 units are scheduled for project plan approval.

From this year's housing comprehensive plan, the 'Gyeonggi Basic Housing' policy has been newly reflected.

The province is promoting institutional improvements including the enactment and revision of ordinances to realize the basic housing policy. The policy will proceed without setbacks, including holding a National Assembly discussion forum on Gyeonggi Basic Housing (January 26), holding a conference and opening a promotion center (February 25), cooperating with cities and counties and related organizations, and planning pilot projects.

Strengthening inclusive housing support based on demand will also continue.

Among the 241,200 housing allowance recipients, rental household recipients (approximately 240,000 households) will receive an average monthly housing cost of approximately 175,000 won, while homeowner recipients (1,200 households) will receive up to 12.41 million won in home improvement costs.

Low-income housing environment improvement projects include ▲Sunlight Housing 500 units, an energy efficiency home renovation project for low-income households ▲G-Housing project 130 units, a private talent donation home renovation project ▲Disabled persons' home renovation project 201 units ▲Housing-vulnerable population housing improvement support project 430 units.

Housing financial cost support for vulnerable groups is also included. Up to 2.5 million won per household in rental deposits will be supported for 1,200 newly moving households in purchased rental housing.

The charter deposit support project will support up to 100 million won for 57 vulnerable households, and the charter deposit loan guarantee and interest support project for low-income households will support 1,300 households respectively.

The Gyeonggi Province Housing Welfare Center opened the Gyeonggi Housing Welfare Portal in September last year to provide integrated information centered on the needs of users.

It is providing integrated information on various housing welfare services including public rental housing, housing cost support, and housing finance systems.

It has strengthened the housing welfare network between the public and private sectors by holding roundtable discussions and workshops with organizations that have signed agreements.

In addition, it is expanding the role of the Gyeonggi Province Housing Welfare Center through performing research projects to support housing welfare policy establishment, providing step-by-step housing welfare education, and conducting customized housing welfare counseling visiting residents in the region.

Policies are also being promoted to ensure efficient management of multi-family housing, improve the quality of multi-family housing under construction, improve residential environments of aged multi-family housing, and strengthen safety management.

Related policies include ▲Joint on-site inspection by private experts and government officials for 25 complexes to create transparent multi-family housing management culture ▲Quality inspections for 153 multi-family housing complexes under construction to prevent construction defects and improve housing quality ▲Operating a technical advisory group 350 times for repair projects of common facilities in aged multi-family housing ▲Support for maintenance and repair costs of aged multi-family housing for 177 complexes ▲Safety inspection support for old small-scale multi-family housing complexes for 315 complexes.

For urban regeneration new deal projects, the province will actively coordinate with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to select at least 8 locations this year, and will smoothly proceed with small-scale urban regeneration projects.

In particular, a vacant house improvement support project will be promoted for the first time this year. Through this project, demolition, repair, and safety measures will be implemented for 83 vacant houses.

The Gyeonggi Province vacant house utilization pilot project will also be conducted at 2 locations, rebirthing vacant houses that harm urban aesthetics and are used as crime sites into urban regeneration focal spaces.

The plan is to supply rental housing for vulnerable groups in the southern region and provide resident community centers and other facilities in the northern region where living infrastructure is insufficient.

Hong Ji-seon, Director of Urban and Housing at Gyeonggi Province, said, "We will continue to expand the supply of rental housing for vulnerable groups and promote the Gyeonggi Basic Housing policy so that any homeless person can live stably, continuously expanding housing stability policies," and added, "We will closely coordinate with the National Assembly, government, cities and counties, and public institutions and implement plans without setback."